Chevrolet Suburban 1500 brake failure problems

Filed Aug 23, 2018 · Brakes · 235,000 miles · MA

I had a major brake failure the other day while driving. I had no brakes, but I was able to stop with the emergency brake. I had the truck towed to the mechanic and they reported that the brake failure was due to rusted brake lines.

Filed Jul 17, 2018 · Brakes · 190,000 miles · MO

Brake lines rusting. Twice in a month the brakes failed after a hard stop at a traffic light. Lucky for me & others there were no cars in front of me or trying to cross the intersection. After applying the brake hard to stop, the brake pedal continued all the way to the floor and the car did not stop. The mechanic told me that the brake lines rusted and therefore the brake fluid leaked out of the system

Filed Jun 1, 2018 · Brakes · 242,000 miles · VA

Without warning brake line blew a hole and no brakes. No warning and total loss of brakes. Service brake system light came on. No help with that. Fortunately I was able to pass on right shoulder threw the grass. Almost a three vehicle accident. Need to have this problem addressed and taken care of. People could have easily been injured or killed.

Filed Jan 19, 2018 · Brakes · 168,651 miles · MD

Brakes failed while driving vehicle shortly after leaving my house while driving down my driveway. The brakes were working fine when I started the truck and completed a 3 point turn to turn the vehicle around in my driveway. As I started going down my driveway and went to apply my brakes to slow the vehicle down that's when the problem occurred. Luckily I was driving slow, under 15 MPH, when I experienced the issue: the brake pedal went all the way to the floor and the vehicle barely slowed down. I started to pump the brakes which did slow the vehicle some and I also employed the emergency brake which enabled me to bring the vehicle to a stop. Had I been in traffic, and not just in my driveway, I most likely would have collided with another vehicle as I had very little control over stopping the vehicle when the issue happened. The issue was due to a rusted rear brake line under the vehicle. The single brake line feeding both of the rear brakes had burst in the vicinity under the drivers seat. The brake line burst while I was going down my driveway as evidenced by the amount of brake fluid spayed onto my driveway when I first attempted to apply my brakes while driving down the driveway and at each point where I pumped the brakes. I was shocked that a single brake line bursting would leave my entire vehicle without brakes. Why is there a front and rear reservoir if they don't matter? There should have been at least a safety alert about this potential danger so I would have known to watch for this obvious safety flaw on my chevrolet suburban. After inspecting the rest of my brake lines I have found that 100% of all my brake lines are severely rusted and will need to be replaced. The chevrolet dealership near my house has already quoted me a repair estimate of $2,100 over the phone, but will need to see the vehicle first to be more precise in their estimate.

Filed Oct 26, 2017 · Brakes · 135,000 miles · MD

The brake fluid lines rusted at the area under the driver side wheel, causing the fluid to leak unexpectedly, thus rendering no brakes. The leak happened on my vehicle and another in this same area. The mechanic said there could be is a problem in the manufacturing of the lines due to the construction and because its too close to the wheel salt and road conditions causes this area to rust more easily. He's had a number of chevy sub. With this same problem in for repair/replacement.

Filed Jun 26, 2017 · Brakes · 88,000 miles · WI · crash

I had a rusted brake line (driver side front) fail june 25th, 2017. This truck is 12 years old and has less than 90,000 miles. Immediately all braking was lost and the pedal pushed to the floor. Repeated pressing the brake only pumped out all the brake fluid. This was a sudden and catastrophic loss of braking. The worst part is, braking is supposed to be split and independent between front and rear brakes, so if you lose the front, the rear brakes still work, and vice versa. Well I lost all braking, I had no front or rear braking! This should be a clear safety problem and a mandatory recall! I crashed into the car in front of me, because of course my emergency brake didn't work either. Despite gm's insistence that somehow this premature brake line failure is normal and the owner's maintenance problem, it should be a very simple issue for the federal safety agency to simply open a single brake line and test to realize the affected vehicles do in fact lose all braking, not just front or rear. I've already completely lost faith in gm to do the right thing, but I'd like to believe the federal safety agency will still do the right thing, and not let gm off with a clear safety problem with their brake design. This crash was pulling up to the stoplight in prescott, wi, heading into town across the prescott bridge. I was driving maybe 30 MPH when I realized I had lost all brakes.

Filed Dec 10, 2016 · Brakes · 75,000 miles · NY

While towing the family boat on secondary roadways, I attempted to stop in heavy traffic, when I pressed on the brake pedal it went completely to the floor and both the truck and boat continued rolling towards stopped traffic. I was only able to stop the vehicle by manually operating the parking brake. Had I not had the presence of mind to utilize the parking brake I would have collided with the traffic stopped in front of me. Upon inspection I noticed a large mount of brake fluid under the driver's side front wheel. I transported the vehicle to my service station where they placed it on a lift and showed me the extensive corrosion on all of the brake lines and transmission cooling lines. The line which had failed resulted in no braking capabilities whatsoever. There is not one serviceable brake line left on the vehicle. The vehicle has 75k miles on it and is immaculate both inside and out and has been regularly serviced. The brake failure resulting in a total loss of brakes, came without any warning.

Filed Dec 5, 2016 · Brakes · 23 miles · IN

On december 2, 2016, I was driving the SUV with my family members inside. I was traveling in state highway about 55 MPH when a car in front of me began slowing down. I attempted to slow down as well by pressing the brake pedal but the brakes did not immediately engage. I then pressed the brake pedal hard which for about 1 second caused the wheels to lock. As the brake pedal continued to be pressed down, the pedal sank to the floor and the actual brakes disengaged and the SUV once again began free-rolling. I pumped the break pedal and I got some braking action out of that, although no significantly. I veered the SUV into oncoming traffic lane to avoid collision with the rear of car in front of me, nearly causing a head on collision with the oncoming car. I was able to veer back into my lane and slow down to get out of the roadway, but the brakes did not work except once the car was moving at minimal speed. When I got out of the car, I examined the rotors to see if they were hot; they were not. I pumped on the brake pedal several times, each time the pedal sinking to the floor. As I was pumping the brake pedal, liquids were squirting out from somewhere under the driver's door. The liquid continued leaking even as I stopped pumping the brake pedal. There was no warning for this brake failure, and the brakes functioned properly up to this point. I had the car towed to a mechanic. This was a scary experience for me and everyone in the car. The next day, I called the dealer to report the incident to gm, but the dealer could not provide me any specific information how to make the report.

Filed Nov 8, 2016 · Brakes · 191,000 miles · KY

A complete loss of braking ability, ruptured brake lines. Lines between proportioning valve and ABS pump ruptured and failed completely. Lines rusted and failed. No accident and no injuries. My wife was driving, vehicle was operated in reverse {backing up}, she then shifted to forward, brakes failed, pedal went to floor, and rolled from a parking lot into a highway, fortunately no other traffic was present.

Filed Sep 18, 2016 · Brakes · 125,000 miles · MN

Steel brake lines: directly under drivers feet beneath vehicle is cluster of four brake lines held in place by a plastic bracket.these brake lines are hidden by a large corrugated black wiring harness. All four lines are extremely corroded at bracket and at least one of them failed completely and instantaneously. Unlike gm reports that it's a dual brake system and vehicle will retain braking capabilities in our case this is false . Word needs to go out about these vehicles but preferably a recall. My 15 year old newly issued permit holder was at the wheel and we were one left turn from descending a 200 foot tall 6% grade hill with a busy intersection and stop light at the bottom. Also living in minnesota knowing classic car owners with original steel brake lines with no issues I'm LED to believe design is a contributing factor in these brake failure issues. Thank you for your time.